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Fight or Flight: 8 Personal Safety Tactics to Use in Dangerous Situations

The fight or flight response is the way your body responds to extreme fear or anxiety. The physiological symptoms include dilating pupils, racing heart, tensing muscles, breathing faster and shallower, and fists possibly clenching. Hormones trigger your body to run from the threat or confront it.

Fight or Flight: 8 Personal Safety Tactics

Neither response is wrong; you just need to know when to run and when to stay and fight. Escape is always best for personal defense if it’s a viable option. Every situation is different. Here are some self-defense strategies to use for Personal Safety.

Prevention

While you can’t always avoid a confrontation, there are Personal Safety Tactics you can take to prevent many attacks.

  • Always pay attention to your surroundings.
  • Avoid dangerous people and places.
  • Don’t make yourself a target.
  • Create distance or escape if someone threatens you.
  • Don’t provoke, argue, or escalate a verbal confrontation.
  • Protect your private areas.
  • If you can’t get away from a threat, give up your valuables or money.

For someone to attack you, they must have the intent, opportunity, and means. If one element is missing, then he can’t attack. Avoiding criminals is the best solution, but that’s not always possible. If someone chooses you as a target, you can still deny them the opportunity to assault you. If you pay attention to your surroundings and pick up on the warning signs, you’ll likely spot pre-assault indicators and identify a threat before they attack. Use the environment and space to your advantage.

When You Sense a Potential Threat

If you sense danger, listen to your instincts. Many people shrug them off, but your body is wired for flight or fight.

  • Assess your situation and act.
  • Evade the possible threat or decide just how close it is, and then consider the best course of action.
  • Increase your pace, cross the street, and join other people near you.
  • Look for a well-lit, public place and call 911 as soon as possible.
  • If the danger is imminent, scream or make as much noise as you can to draw other people’s attention to you and your situation.
  • When you can, call the police and report the incident. Give the dispatcher the location where it happened, a description of the suspect, their last known direction of travel, and vehicle description if there was one.

Being aware also means looking out for other people in trouble. If you see someone else who needs help, call 911 immediately.

Safety Tips to Protect Yourself, Your Home, and Your Family

There are general personal Safety Tactics you can use that may save your life and your family.

  1. Cover Peepholes in Doors - When you stay somewhere with a peephole, cover it with crumpled tissue or anything else handy. Obscuring the peephole keeps people from looking into your hotel room. If you have a peephole in your door at home, always assume that people can look through it. Put a cover over it. Most one-way peephole technology isn’t foolproof.
  2. Don’t Rely on Door Chain Locks - Door chain locks don’t provide reliable protection. Burglars can break through a door chain easily.
  3. Keep Self Defense Weapons On Hand - You never know what dangerous situation you might find yourself in, so it’s essential to be ready for anything or anyone that might bring you harm. Having a non-lethal self-defense weapon close by is an excellent way to keep any approaching danger away. Pepper spray, stun guns, and TASER devices are all great self-defense options that are simple to use and can be stored anywhere for easy retrieval.
  4. Carry Your Car Key in Your Hand - Many cars unlock and start without a key today. If you have a physical car key, keep it in your hand when walking to your car alone. When you have your key ready, you won’t waste time fumbling to find it and get in your vehicle. You can also use a key as a weapon. Make a fist and hold it with the key extended between your knuckles. If someone assaults you, rake it across their skin or try to poke them in the eye.
  5. Set a Nearby Address as Your Home Address in Electronics - Many electronics ask for your address, such as your GPS or smartphone. Don’t set your real address on the phone. If someone steals your cellphone, you don’t want them to find you by using the address on your phone.

    Lock all the vital paperwork that you keep in your car in your glove box. If someone breaks in, they can get your home address easily with the unsecured paperwork in your vehicle. It may be inconvenient, but you don’t want criminals finding your identifying information.
  6. Enable the Remote Wipe Feature on Your Smartphone - Some people don’t even know that this feature exists. If someone does manage to steal your smartphone, you can remotely erase all of the sensitive information in it. Think of all the data that you keep in your cellphone, such as appointments, the kids’ schedules, confidential contact information, and more.
  7. Check for Hidden Cameras and Skimmers - People determined to steal your money or information find creative ways. As technology advances, fraudsters find more innovative ways to rob people. More and more places are finding skimmers attached to credit card machines and ATMs at gas stations and banks. Look carefully at these machines before you use them. If it appears that someone tampered with it, notify the business immediately. Also, examine machines that scan your biometric information to see if they look altered. If you have any doubt, don’t use it.
  8. Lock Up Prescription Medicines Out of Sight of Visitors -
    If you take narcotics or other addictive medicines, store them in places out of the reach of visitors. Many people suffer from dangerous addictions, and your housekeeper, plumber, neighbor, or anyone may mark your house for burglary if they know the medicines you take.

The key to personal safety, in most instances, is prevention. Many people teach techniques and physical moves for self-defense but never focus on ways to avoid confrontation. Deny an assailant any one of the three elements: intent, means, and opportunity, and they can’t attack.

We’re taught to be tough and stay and fight, but many times flight is the better option. Keep these personal safety tactics in mind, and you’ll protect yourself from most harm.



This post first appeared on TBOTECH Security Blog - Family Self Defense, please read the originial post: here

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Fight or Flight: 8 Personal Safety Tactics to Use in Dangerous Situations

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